July 12, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



73 



Professor Charles S. Sargent, author of ' The 

 Silva of North America,' has under preparation 

 a work to be known as ' Trees and Shrubs ' and 

 to consist of illustrations and brief descriptions 

 of new and little-known trees and shrubs, chiefly 

 from material obtained from the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum, It will not be confined wholly to North 

 American plants, but ' will include also the 

 w^oody plants of other regions, especially those 

 of the northern hemisphere, which may be ex- 

 pected to flourish in the gardens of the United 

 States and Europe, and those of special com- 

 mercial or economic interest and value.' It is 

 to be published at irregular intervals, and each' 

 part will contain twenty-five plates. It is the 

 hope of the publishers that one part will appear 

 in the fall of 1901, and that at least two parts 

 may be issued each year. From the specimen 

 plates and pages of text it is evident that this 

 is to be a work second only to the ' Silva ' in 

 importance and value to working botanists and 

 horticulturists. 



THE OAKS OF THE CONTINENTAL DIVIDE. 



Botanists who have puzzled over the little 

 oak trees of the Pike's Peak region in Colo- 

 rado will be interested in a paper by Dr. Eyd- 

 berg in a Bulletin of the Netv York Botanical 

 Garden (Vol. II,, No. 6), in Avhich he attempts to 

 bring something like order out of the chaotic 

 condition which has existed hitherto. After 

 several seasons of field work in the Rocky 

 Mountains, Dr. Rydberg finds that the Colorado 

 oaks heretofore referred to Quercus undulata and 

 Q. gambelii are more properly to be referred to 

 ten or eleven species, three of which prove to 

 have been undescribed. About Pike's Peak there 

 are no less than six species, instead of the single 

 species Q. undulata; these are Q. utahensis, Q. 

 leptophylla(new), Q. gunnisonii, Q. nitescens{aew), 

 Q. novo mexicana and Q. gambelii. Dr. Rydberg 

 found it necessary to extend his studies through- 

 out the mountain region, and as a result he has 

 very considerably enlarged the list of species 

 for this portion of the continent. His descrip- 

 tive list includes no less than twenty-nine 

 names, of which the new species are : Q. sub- 

 mollis (Arizona), Q. vreelandii (Colorado to New 

 Mexico), Q. leptophylla (Colorado), Q. nitescens 

 (Colorado to Utah), Q. eastwoodise (Utah), Q. 



havardi (Texas), Q. pauciloba (Arizona), Q. tvil- 

 coxii (Arizona to Utah and Nevada). 



Charles E. Bessey. 

 The Univeesity of Nebraska. 



CONFERRING OF DEGREES AT THE UNI- 

 VERSITY OF CHICAGO. 



As we have already recorded, the University 

 of Chicago conferred in connection with its de- 

 cennial eleven honorary degrees. President 

 Harper, in welcoming the men of science on 

 whom the LL.D, degree was conferred, spoke 

 as follows : 



Edioard Charles Pickering, 

 during twenty-five years Payne Professor of As- 

 tronomy and Director of the Astronomical Observatory 

 of Harvard College, an observatory developed through 

 your labors into an institution foremost in research on 

 two continents ; organizer in the United States of a 

 system of laboratory teaching of great influence on 

 education in physical science ; student of optics ; dis- 

 coverer of variable stars and investigator in stellar 

 photometry ; originator of many astronomical ap- 

 plications of photography and spectroscopy, which 

 have revealed the constitution of the stellar universe : 

 — for these distinguished services, and especially for 

 the last-named, by the authority of the Board of 

 Trustees of the University of Chicago, upon nomina- 

 tion of the University Senate, I confer upon you the 

 degree of Doctor of Laws of this University, with all 

 rights and privileges appertaining thereunto. 



Jacob Henry vanH Hoff, 

 Professor of Physical Chemistry in the University of 

 Berlin, investigator who has brought to bear upon 

 chemical problems a keen and logical mind, endowed 

 with speculative and imaginative powers of the highest 

 order, founder of the theory explaining the space 

 relations of atoms in molecules — ^a theory which is 

 essential to a comprehension of the chemistry of or- 

 ganized and inorganized matter ; master in the field 

 of dynamic chemistry ; investigator and brilliant 

 discoverer in the domain of the modern theory of so- 

 lutions, a theory which constitutes one of the greatest 

 advances made hj chemical science in the last quar- 

 ter of a century : — for these splendid and fertile 

 achievements, by the authority of the Board of Trus- 

 tees of the University of Chicago, upon nomination 

 of the University Senate, I confer upon you the de- 

 gree of Doctor of Laws of this University, with all 

 the rights and privileges appertaining thereunto. 



Charles Doolittle Walcott, 

 Director of the United States Geological Survey, 

 Superintendent of the National Museum, author of 



